Chapter 2 titled “The Basic News Story” focused on coaching tips, and gave examples on how to make news trustworthy and organized. The first element that I found to be of high importance was found on page 27. The idea I focused on in this case was impact, and how news can change the lives of citizens and encourage readers to interact. Carole began describing different ways news can be accessed through the internet and wrote, “Online news sites provide impact in several interactive ways: Databases let readers search statistics about education, crime or property values in their communities; interactive calculators give readers a chance to figure what a tax increase might cost them; feedback questions, polls and blogs ask readers to comment on issues” (Rich, p. 27). It is important to deliver news to citizens across the globe, but having their feedback guide future news stories is highly valued. This ensures that citizens feel heard and are able to interact through polls on things like accessibility, safety, and value throughout their communities. Without this, it will make readers feel that they are being spoken TO rather than spoken WITH. It is important, especially in today’s world, for people to feel wanted and heard especially when they find something important enough to give input on.
The second element that I found interesting was on page 34. When I read news stories, I often find that I am most inclined to read those with bold headlines, and tell the story in as few words as possible. This will either grab or derail my attention when looking for particular topics to read about. For those stories that I passed on, I always wondered if there was a different way the organization could have presented their information to make my attention span last a bit longer. There is a structure to news stories which I never knew existed, and is presented in a very peculiar way. In the “Example of Basic News Story” section, we learn about what the most important elements of a basic news story are. Carole wrote, “The story is organized in ‘inverted pyramid’ form, giving the most important information first and the rest in descending order of importance” (Rich, p. 34). Looking towards the left of the page, we can see an inverted pyramid diagram that is labeled in descending order; Lead, Nut Graph, Lead Quote, Facts/Quotes, Ending. I also learned throughout this chapter that it is important to stick to this order and not repeat information multiple times. It is important to keep readers engaged and not bore them with information you have already mentioned 3 times before. Sticking to the facts, and delivering the story in as few words as possible is the main goal of news organizations.
The second chapter of WaRN titled The Basic News Story covers topics such as finding your lead and how to state the main idea of your story. All news stories are developed around one main point, the focus. The rest of that story should support the focus. When stating the focus you want to make sure that you are stating it within the first sentence. This is because readers want to know what the story is about, if they can’t find it immediately they will stop reading. When finding your lead you want to ask yourself “What is this story about?”, “How are the viewers affected?”, and “How would you tell this story to a friend?”.
When creating a basic news story you have to know the elements and where to input information to make the story flow coherently. You want to start with your headline. This will identify the main idea of the story. You can also add secondary headlines to give a quick overview of what the story will cover. Then, you create a lead. It is the hook that makes readers want more. There are summary leads which is the most common type of lead, hard news lead which is a lead that doesn’t have all of the answers within the first sentence or else it would be too long of a lead, and feature leads which starts with a personal story.
I found the section on different types of leads to be very interesting. I was unaware that there are so many different types of leads. A lead is the first sentence of the story which gives the most important information. A summary lead is most common in hard-news stories. It summarizes the main points, including the who, what, where, when, why, and how. The whole story goes through those points in more detail. Another type of lead is a soft lead also known as a feature lead. That is where a feature piece uses a creative lead which often contains an anecdote or a description. It makes the start of the piece more engaging for readers and hopefully entices them to keep reading. Leads are important because they tell the audience basic information about the story that lets readers know if they want to read the article. Another part that I found interesting was the section about pull quotes. A pull quote is a quote from the story that is pulled to the top of the page. It is usually in a big font where readers’ eyes go to immediately. The purpose of these quotes are to entice readers and create interest in reading the story. Writers often think of these quotes when writing the story. It is important to identify a quote that is going to fascinate people thinking about reading the story. Pull quotes are a big part of journalism because they try to grab readers. Journalists want to do whatever they can to get their article read, which is why pull quotes and leads are so crucial.
An interesting element in chapter 2 of WaRN, was having a focus in your article. I think this is important because it is easy to get carried away while writing and then realize you shifted away from the focus of the article. Quotes, facts and information should all go along with your focus, that will hold together the main point of the article. Putting the focus towards the first two sentences can hold the attention of readers. With so much information people are getting these days, having the information early on can hold attention. A second important element is attribution. The reader wants to know how you got the information that is in the story. Or how we know the source is true. Attribution will add credibility to the source so readers can know they can trust it. With social media being so popular and there being information that can spread that isn’t true, readers wanna know they can trust what you write.
After reading chapter two of the WaRN I learned new elements regarding the overall structure of collecting and formatting information. Specifically the nut graph. This is a “sentence or paragraph that states the focus – the main point – of the story.” Without this, the overall central theme would be lost. This also differs when it’s a hard news story compared to a soft news story. When it’s a hard news story with a direct lead that contains the focus, they don’t need to include the nut graph. Meanwhile, the nut graph is a crucial part when a story starts with a feature lead since the reader will have to wait until later to find out the overall reason for the story. I also thought the overall impact was important. To get across to your readers you need to understand how the news affects them. Online news sites provide several interactive ways to make an impact based on statistics and communities. Without these impacts, it would be difficult to draw attention to the articles. With the use of technology taking over most news networks, it has become crucially important that news organizations deliver media in text and video forms. They often use social media concepts before and after you write your story. Using “X” formally known as Twitter to notify readers of updates on your story is a great use of the platform. Along with finding photographs or visuals that allow the reader to understand the story. Without updating the way organizations deliver news, it would be incredibly difficult to stay relevant in today’s society.
This chapter went over the basic outlines and parts of the different news stories, especially hard news and feature news and how they relate to each other. The two interesting takeaways from this chapter were different aspects of the stories, specifically talking about nut graphs and back/highlight boxes. These I knew were in existence but I did not understand or really register what they were doing within the story. A nut graph is a sentence or paragraph that states the focus or the main point of the story. This was created about 50 years ago within the Wall Street Journal through a memo. This was interesting to me because knowing the origin and understanding helps me understand why this was created. Within the textbook it described how to use it which was very useful and very needed for me to understand what this was and why it came about. Then there are the facts or highlight boxes. These are a separate part of the story where it has a few bullet points in it that highlights different aspects of the story including dates ( in chronological order) stats and other main points within the story. This gives the reader a quick rundown of different aspects of the story without overloading them or having them have to look through the whole story to understand different aspects. It is especially useful for stats in the story because those can usually be very hard for readers to understand within the context of the story.
One interesting element I found in chapter 2 of WaRN was the inverted pyramid concept for a basic news story. At the top and largest part of the pyramid is the lead. The lead is the hook that tells the reader what the story is essentially all about. Following the lead, at the next stage of the pyramid, is the nut graph. This is the main point of the story and explains why what you’re reading is newsworthy. Next there is the lead quote, which is meant to reinforce the lead you have for the story. After this you add any additional facts or quotes that you deem less relevant or important. Finally, at the bottom and smallest part of the pyramid you have your ending. I think this pyramid does a good job at visually expressing how a basic news story should be formatted and was a key part of the chapter. Additionally I found the idea of pull quotes to be interesting. I never really thought about how the text could be used like this to emphasize a quote or to simply entice the reader with a particularly highlighted area. The text also talks about how it’s important to have your best quotes placed highly in the reading when referring to these pull quotes.
The pyramid concept for how to build/setup a story. It starts at the top with the Lead which is the hook where the reader is told what the story is basically all about. After the lead/hook is the nut graph which is the main part of the story which explains to the reader why what they’re reading is considered newsworthy. After the nut graph is the lead quote, which backs up/reinforces the lead that the person has for their story. After the nut graph, there’s a space for all quotes and additional facts that are still important and relevant, but not as important or relevant as the other ones. At the bottom of the pyramid is the ending which ties all of it together. With this, it creates a much better understanding for how a story is built and how it works. Something else that was important is attribution. This allows the reader to truth the information you’re providing them with because you are showing them it’s credible and reliable.
One piece of chapter two that was a highlight for me comes on page 35 when Rich begins to talk about the moral dilemmas when it comes to being on and off the record. Now this term wasn’t new to me I’ve heard it in movies, being interviewed for news myself, and then just lastly watching the news. The thing I find somewhat aggravating about the situation is people consenting to be interviewed, not to mention these people have watched the news and understands what happens when one is interviewed, then decide all the sudden after they don’t want to be quoted in the story. With that being said, Rich goes on to say, “you can negotiate with the source, or you can insist that you have a right to use the information because you identified your purpose clearly.” (p. 35). To me the reporter should have the right to quote anyone who consents to an interview. This allows the reporter to not only get first-hand accounts of what happened, but the interview gives perspective of the situation. This will allow us in the future to look back and have an accurate, credible, and detailed culmination of what happened. The other piece I found interesting was the visuals passage. This really stood out to me because of one line from rich, she goes on to say, “Visual elements such as photographs, charts and other graphic illustrations are crucial to news presentation in print and online information.” (p. 29). This was interesting to me because the soul reason this has become “crucial” is technological advancement. Journalism has been around for a very long time; it predates these technological advancements so it’s fair to say that when journalism was created there were no images or videos. This led me to the question of, is it really crucial or is it just a luxury we have today?
Something that stuck out to me that will be helpful to me and possibly others was the “tell a friend” method. Rich describes this method as a way to help determine the focus of your story as well as what is most important. The theory is that you imagine you are telling the story to one of your good friends. You would most likely tell them the most interesting information before anything else. I plan to use this method because I tend to overthink or overcomplicate creating the lead. This method is a simple way to get out of your head and get to the interesting information. The other piece of information that got my attention was about pull quotes. I have seen them before but never knew how they should be properly used. Rich explains that pull quotes are broken out of the story and in larger font. Its a smart idea to use this is you have some really strong quotes because it can pull in the reader. It also puts more of a spotlight on what your subject is saying which i believe is very important. Pull quotes are a strong tool that I plan to use to become a better journalist.
One thing I liked about chapter two in WARN is the headline section. The way the book describes a headline is it’s a way for reader to know what the article is about. “The headline is the line on top of the story that identifies the main idea of the story so the reader can decide whether to access the full story (Pg 23 Par1).” Though this is something so simple it is very important. You don’t want your reader to get the wrong idea reading your headline and it be about a completely different topic.
Another section I liked in this chapter was the nut graph section. Basically what a nut graph does is it tells you in a crazy way or a “nutshell” what the story is about. In a hard-news story with a direct summary lead, the lead contains the focus, so you don’t need a separate nut graph. But the nut graph is crucial when a story starts with a feature lead because the reader has to wait for a few paragraphs to find out the reason for the story (pg 25 Par 2)”. I think this gives a fellow writer a good strategy when starting a report. Sometimes one might be lost or not have an idea going, the nut graph gives you a idea.
One thing that I found interesting while reading chapter 2 of WaRN was the explanation on a nut graph. I had never heard this phrase before but I thought it was an interesting way to describe telling the story in a nutshell. While reading this section, the nutshell summary is a crucial part of most news stories. It is usually the part of the story that explains the main points the writer is trying to have the readers understand. It should be placed high in the story, but it is only a lead while the rest of the paragraphs outline the reasoning behind why the readers are reading it. Another part of this chapter that I found interesting was highlighting boxes. When I read something and there is a highlight box, I enjoy reading those first to help grasp an understanding of what I am reading. Usually, a highlight box is just a few bullet points explaining a quick summary of parts of the story, which can make people get a better understanding of what certain paragraphs will explain. Writers though can sometimes write too much in these highlight boxes where people won’t be interested enough to read the rest of the story so when writing these they have to be careful. I do enjoy when the highlight boxes have specific statistics that are interesting but not crucial to the story. This is an interesting part of most news stories because some highlight boxes are just statistics so then you have to read the article to understand why they are important.
Chapter 2 talks about the basic elements of a story. It can be broken down in order of headline, lead, and the nut graph. A headline goes at the top of the page and is used to identify the main idea of the story. Headlines are unique to written news stories and don’t appear in a broadcast news script. The lead is the first sentence or two of the story and is the real hook of the article. A good lead will entice the reader to keep going. There are different types of leads too. Theres the summary lead which sums up the main points of the story, the hard news lead is essentially like a summary lead but usually provides less information. It’s shorter than 35 words, brief, and provides the most basic information about what is needed to know. A feature story lead can be longer, starting with a story or descriptions of a person or an incident. There is less urgency with a feature story and therefore the lead can be more in depth and attention grabbing than just providing a quick summary of the story. The nut graph is a paragraph that will provide most of the important information of the story. It’s usually placed early in the story and aids the lead in the job of engaging the reader.
13 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 4”
Chapter 2 titled “The Basic News Story” focused on coaching tips, and gave examples on how to make news trustworthy and organized. The first element that I found to be of high importance was found on page 27. The idea I focused on in this case was impact, and how news can change the lives of citizens and encourage readers to interact. Carole began describing different ways news can be accessed through the internet and wrote, “Online news sites provide impact in several interactive ways: Databases let readers search statistics about education, crime or property values in their communities; interactive calculators give readers a chance to figure what a tax increase might cost them; feedback questions, polls and blogs ask readers to comment on issues” (Rich, p. 27). It is important to deliver news to citizens across the globe, but having their feedback guide future news stories is highly valued. This ensures that citizens feel heard and are able to interact through polls on things like accessibility, safety, and value throughout their communities. Without this, it will make readers feel that they are being spoken TO rather than spoken WITH. It is important, especially in today’s world, for people to feel wanted and heard especially when they find something important enough to give input on.
The second element that I found interesting was on page 34. When I read news stories, I often find that I am most inclined to read those with bold headlines, and tell the story in as few words as possible. This will either grab or derail my attention when looking for particular topics to read about. For those stories that I passed on, I always wondered if there was a different way the organization could have presented their information to make my attention span last a bit longer. There is a structure to news stories which I never knew existed, and is presented in a very peculiar way. In the “Example of Basic News Story” section, we learn about what the most important elements of a basic news story are. Carole wrote, “The story is organized in ‘inverted pyramid’ form, giving the most important information first and the rest in descending order of importance” (Rich, p. 34). Looking towards the left of the page, we can see an inverted pyramid diagram that is labeled in descending order; Lead, Nut Graph, Lead Quote, Facts/Quotes, Ending. I also learned throughout this chapter that it is important to stick to this order and not repeat information multiple times. It is important to keep readers engaged and not bore them with information you have already mentioned 3 times before. Sticking to the facts, and delivering the story in as few words as possible is the main goal of news organizations.
The second chapter of WaRN titled The Basic News Story covers topics such as finding your lead and how to state the main idea of your story. All news stories are developed around one main point, the focus. The rest of that story should support the focus. When stating the focus you want to make sure that you are stating it within the first sentence. This is because readers want to know what the story is about, if they can’t find it immediately they will stop reading. When finding your lead you want to ask yourself “What is this story about?”, “How are the viewers affected?”, and “How would you tell this story to a friend?”.
When creating a basic news story you have to know the elements and where to input information to make the story flow coherently. You want to start with your headline. This will identify the main idea of the story. You can also add secondary headlines to give a quick overview of what the story will cover. Then, you create a lead. It is the hook that makes readers want more. There are summary leads which is the most common type of lead, hard news lead which is a lead that doesn’t have all of the answers within the first sentence or else it would be too long of a lead, and feature leads which starts with a personal story.
Journal #4- Jadyn Stevens
I found the section on different types of leads to be very interesting. I was unaware that there are so many different types of leads. A lead is the first sentence of the story which gives the most important information. A summary lead is most common in hard-news stories. It summarizes the main points, including the who, what, where, when, why, and how. The whole story goes through those points in more detail. Another type of lead is a soft lead also known as a feature lead. That is where a feature piece uses a creative lead which often contains an anecdote or a description. It makes the start of the piece more engaging for readers and hopefully entices them to keep reading. Leads are important because they tell the audience basic information about the story that lets readers know if they want to read the article. Another part that I found interesting was the section about pull quotes. A pull quote is a quote from the story that is pulled to the top of the page. It is usually in a big font where readers’ eyes go to immediately. The purpose of these quotes are to entice readers and create interest in reading the story. Writers often think of these quotes when writing the story. It is important to identify a quote that is going to fascinate people thinking about reading the story. Pull quotes are a big part of journalism because they try to grab readers. Journalists want to do whatever they can to get their article read, which is why pull quotes and leads are so crucial.
An interesting element in chapter 2 of WaRN, was having a focus in your article. I think this is important because it is easy to get carried away while writing and then realize you shifted away from the focus of the article. Quotes, facts and information should all go along with your focus, that will hold together the main point of the article. Putting the focus towards the first two sentences can hold the attention of readers. With so much information people are getting these days, having the information early on can hold attention. A second important element is attribution. The reader wants to know how you got the information that is in the story. Or how we know the source is true. Attribution will add credibility to the source so readers can know they can trust it. With social media being so popular and there being information that can spread that isn’t true, readers wanna know they can trust what you write.
After reading chapter two of the WaRN I learned new elements regarding the overall structure of collecting and formatting information. Specifically the nut graph. This is a “sentence or paragraph that states the focus – the main point – of the story.” Without this, the overall central theme would be lost. This also differs when it’s a hard news story compared to a soft news story. When it’s a hard news story with a direct lead that contains the focus, they don’t need to include the nut graph. Meanwhile, the nut graph is a crucial part when a story starts with a feature lead since the reader will have to wait until later to find out the overall reason for the story. I also thought the overall impact was important. To get across to your readers you need to understand how the news affects them. Online news sites provide several interactive ways to make an impact based on statistics and communities. Without these impacts, it would be difficult to draw attention to the articles. With the use of technology taking over most news networks, it has become crucially important that news organizations deliver media in text and video forms. They often use social media concepts before and after you write your story. Using “X” formally known as Twitter to notify readers of updates on your story is a great use of the platform. Along with finding photographs or visuals that allow the reader to understand the story. Without updating the way organizations deliver news, it would be incredibly difficult to stay relevant in today’s society.
This chapter went over the basic outlines and parts of the different news stories, especially hard news and feature news and how they relate to each other. The two interesting takeaways from this chapter were different aspects of the stories, specifically talking about nut graphs and back/highlight boxes. These I knew were in existence but I did not understand or really register what they were doing within the story. A nut graph is a sentence or paragraph that states the focus or the main point of the story. This was created about 50 years ago within the Wall Street Journal through a memo. This was interesting to me because knowing the origin and understanding helps me understand why this was created. Within the textbook it described how to use it which was very useful and very needed for me to understand what this was and why it came about. Then there are the facts or highlight boxes. These are a separate part of the story where it has a few bullet points in it that highlights different aspects of the story including dates ( in chronological order) stats and other main points within the story. This gives the reader a quick rundown of different aspects of the story without overloading them or having them have to look through the whole story to understand different aspects. It is especially useful for stats in the story because those can usually be very hard for readers to understand within the context of the story.
One interesting element I found in chapter 2 of WaRN was the inverted pyramid concept for a basic news story. At the top and largest part of the pyramid is the lead. The lead is the hook that tells the reader what the story is essentially all about. Following the lead, at the next stage of the pyramid, is the nut graph. This is the main point of the story and explains why what you’re reading is newsworthy. Next there is the lead quote, which is meant to reinforce the lead you have for the story. After this you add any additional facts or quotes that you deem less relevant or important. Finally, at the bottom and smallest part of the pyramid you have your ending. I think this pyramid does a good job at visually expressing how a basic news story should be formatted and was a key part of the chapter. Additionally I found the idea of pull quotes to be interesting. I never really thought about how the text could be used like this to emphasize a quote or to simply entice the reader with a particularly highlighted area. The text also talks about how it’s important to have your best quotes placed highly in the reading when referring to these pull quotes.
The pyramid concept for how to build/setup a story. It starts at the top with the Lead which is the hook where the reader is told what the story is basically all about. After the lead/hook is the nut graph which is the main part of the story which explains to the reader why what they’re reading is considered newsworthy. After the nut graph is the lead quote, which backs up/reinforces the lead that the person has for their story. After the nut graph, there’s a space for all quotes and additional facts that are still important and relevant, but not as important or relevant as the other ones. At the bottom of the pyramid is the ending which ties all of it together. With this, it creates a much better understanding for how a story is built and how it works. Something else that was important is attribution. This allows the reader to truth the information you’re providing them with because you are showing them it’s credible and reliable.
One piece of chapter two that was a highlight for me comes on page 35 when Rich begins to talk about the moral dilemmas when it comes to being on and off the record. Now this term wasn’t new to me I’ve heard it in movies, being interviewed for news myself, and then just lastly watching the news. The thing I find somewhat aggravating about the situation is people consenting to be interviewed, not to mention these people have watched the news and understands what happens when one is interviewed, then decide all the sudden after they don’t want to be quoted in the story. With that being said, Rich goes on to say, “you can negotiate with the source, or you can insist that you have a right to use the information because you identified your purpose clearly.” (p. 35). To me the reporter should have the right to quote anyone who consents to an interview. This allows the reporter to not only get first-hand accounts of what happened, but the interview gives perspective of the situation. This will allow us in the future to look back and have an accurate, credible, and detailed culmination of what happened. The other piece I found interesting was the visuals passage. This really stood out to me because of one line from rich, she goes on to say, “Visual elements such as photographs, charts and other graphic illustrations are crucial to news presentation in print and online information.” (p. 29). This was interesting to me because the soul reason this has become “crucial” is technological advancement. Journalism has been around for a very long time; it predates these technological advancements so it’s fair to say that when journalism was created there were no images or videos. This led me to the question of, is it really crucial or is it just a luxury we have today?
Something that stuck out to me that will be helpful to me and possibly others was the “tell a friend” method. Rich describes this method as a way to help determine the focus of your story as well as what is most important. The theory is that you imagine you are telling the story to one of your good friends. You would most likely tell them the most interesting information before anything else. I plan to use this method because I tend to overthink or overcomplicate creating the lead. This method is a simple way to get out of your head and get to the interesting information. The other piece of information that got my attention was about pull quotes. I have seen them before but never knew how they should be properly used. Rich explains that pull quotes are broken out of the story and in larger font. Its a smart idea to use this is you have some really strong quotes because it can pull in the reader. It also puts more of a spotlight on what your subject is saying which i believe is very important. Pull quotes are a strong tool that I plan to use to become a better journalist.
One thing I liked about chapter two in WARN is the headline section. The way the book describes a headline is it’s a way for reader to know what the article is about. “The headline is the line on top of the story that identifies the main idea of the story so the reader can decide whether to access the full story (Pg 23 Par1).” Though this is something so simple it is very important. You don’t want your reader to get the wrong idea reading your headline and it be about a completely different topic.
Another section I liked in this chapter was the nut graph section. Basically what a nut graph does is it tells you in a crazy way or a “nutshell” what the story is about. In a hard-news story with a direct summary lead, the lead contains the focus, so you don’t need a separate nut graph. But the nut graph is crucial when a story starts with a feature lead because the reader has to wait for a few paragraphs to find out the reason for the story (pg 25 Par 2)”. I think this gives a fellow writer a good strategy when starting a report. Sometimes one might be lost or not have an idea going, the nut graph gives you a idea.
One thing that I found interesting while reading chapter 2 of WaRN was the explanation on a nut graph. I had never heard this phrase before but I thought it was an interesting way to describe telling the story in a nutshell. While reading this section, the nutshell summary is a crucial part of most news stories. It is usually the part of the story that explains the main points the writer is trying to have the readers understand. It should be placed high in the story, but it is only a lead while the rest of the paragraphs outline the reasoning behind why the readers are reading it. Another part of this chapter that I found interesting was highlighting boxes. When I read something and there is a highlight box, I enjoy reading those first to help grasp an understanding of what I am reading. Usually, a highlight box is just a few bullet points explaining a quick summary of parts of the story, which can make people get a better understanding of what certain paragraphs will explain. Writers though can sometimes write too much in these highlight boxes where people won’t be interested enough to read the rest of the story so when writing these they have to be careful. I do enjoy when the highlight boxes have specific statistics that are interesting but not crucial to the story. This is an interesting part of most news stories because some highlight boxes are just statistics so then you have to read the article to understand why they are important.
Chapter 2 talks about the basic elements of a story. It can be broken down in order of headline, lead, and the nut graph. A headline goes at the top of the page and is used to identify the main idea of the story. Headlines are unique to written news stories and don’t appear in a broadcast news script. The lead is the first sentence or two of the story and is the real hook of the article. A good lead will entice the reader to keep going. There are different types of leads too. Theres the summary lead which sums up the main points of the story, the hard news lead is essentially like a summary lead but usually provides less information. It’s shorter than 35 words, brief, and provides the most basic information about what is needed to know. A feature story lead can be longer, starting with a story or descriptions of a person or an incident. There is less urgency with a feature story and therefore the lead can be more in depth and attention grabbing than just providing a quick summary of the story. The nut graph is a paragraph that will provide most of the important information of the story. It’s usually placed early in the story and aids the lead in the job of engaging the reader.